The present invention relates to an actuating device for electric switching apparatus having a shaft and bearings which are arranged at walls consisting of sheet metal at a distance from each other, a tube coaxially surrounding the shaft being arranged between the walls.
An actuating device of this type has become known from British Pat. No. A-1 583,381. In this actuating device, the tube has the purpose of protecting the shaft and of forming a supply space for a lubricant. In spite of its outward simplicity, a bearing arrangement of this type presents considerable problems if it is to be used in quantity production of switch gear, since it is then possible that openings in the walls which are intended to receive the bearings, are not aligned with each other and that accordingly the shaft does not properly cooperate with the bearings or that the shaft cannot be inserted into the bearings as all. This applies particularly to the case where the bearings are not designed as short slide bearing sleeves in view of strong transversal forces at the shaft, so that antifriction bearings are required.